The Franchise Tax Board has always been a bit more enthusiastic than other government outfits, in my experience. (Well, with the exception of the Employment Development Department–the State group that collects payroll taxes. They REALLY get a gold star for enthusiasm.) Go tell your neighbors to come clean on their tax shelter deals.

I worked on lots of exploded tax shelters left over from the 70s and 80s. The lingering financial pain — 10 and 15 years on — was terrible. I won’t go into war stories for reasons of confidentiality. But these tax shelter chickens were coming home to roost when some of my clients were retired and didn’t have the money to pay the tax.